EA Redwood Shores

According to Steve Desilets, lead designer forDante’s Inferno, an Electronic Arts survey found that 83 percent of people have heard about the first part of Dante Alighieri Divine Comedy. It’s a recognizable work in the Western canon, yet strangely enough, I’m willing to bet that fewer people have actually read it.

People learn about the nine circles of hell and the hero’s epic journey through cultural osmosis. It’s like knowing about David and Goliath without actually reading the Bible passages. For me, I’ve had a passing knowledge of the Dante’s Inferno. I generally know what it’s about, but I have never read the text itself. I never delved into the nitty gritty of the text, but now, I have the chance with EA Redwood Shore’s latest project.

What surprised me the most about this video game translation of the epic poem is how gnarly the text is and how the team at EA Redwood Shores interprets the author’s vision.

“Obviously, we have to change a couple of verbs because watch and listen aren’t exciting to play,” said Desilets. “Hack, maim, torture those are basically your verbs, but the setting is loyal as we can actually be to the poem.”

The level I played puts Dante on the Charon’s boat on his way to the underworld. But in this case, the team imagines Charon as being the actual ship. Dante ride’s the ferryman’s back and battles demons and other creatures in the first part of the level.

At first, I was excited about the concept of Electronic Arts’ Dante’s Inferno. The idea had potential and judging by EA Redwood Shores’ most recent work — Dead Space — this game could be epic.

Folks have been imagining and reimagining hell for centuries. More recently, I’ve seen the Satan’s home in Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 and What Dreams may Come. All those takes were visionary and nightmareish and frankly, I was looking forward to seeing a video game take on hell.

But unfortunately, after seeing the trailer, I’m not so excited. They took Dante’s Inferno and turned into a stupid action movie full of what looks like zombies, imps and a muscle-bound hero. It kind of reminds me of a spoof of a classic work of literature than an honest-to-goodness interpretation.

It’sDante’s Inferno via Jerry Bruckheimer. For the closest example of spoofing a classic, watch this clip of our governor playing Hamlet:

Then again, it’s only the trailer, but it’s a trailer that left a bad impression. I’m hoping that the actual game will be different and original. But right now, it looks as if EA is trying to steal some of that God of War vibe, but instead of using Greek themes, it’s using Christian ones. I just hope it’s something more than that.

Going HUD-less was one of the biggest trends of E3 this year. Developers are veering away from things like health bars and item counts. Instead, everything players need to know will be told visually through interesting details on the character or in the gameplay.

But the thing is everyone has a different take on going HUD-less, but the best example of it is Dead Space. It’s the most well-conceived non-HUD HUD. I’ve seen.

As Isaac Clarke, players and a crew are sent to investigate a planet cracker called the USG Ishimura, a giant city-sized spaceship that collects resources from desolate planets. Apparently 500 years in the future, Earth’s resources have been completely exhausted, and to survive, humans have to forage around space exploiting what we can find on alien worlds.

Sadly, we discover that space is devoid of life, that is until Isaac and company visit said planet cracker. Instead of finding a space station in dire need of repairs, the mining repair team finds a craft overrun over by necromorphs, the reanimated corpses of dead crew members.

Worse yet, these creatures are smart and Isaac isn’t equipped to deal with the horrors on board. (He’s a miner.) What ensues is EA Redwood Shores’ take on survival horror in space.